


Heartbeat from the Future

by Michevalier



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Angst, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Gang Rape, Hotdogshipping, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, M/M, My First Multi-Chaptered Fic, Paradox, Shosaku, Smut, So excited!, Supposed Post-Canon, Time Travel, Violence, occasional humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 07:05:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12676848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michevalier/pseuds/Michevalier
Summary: Shoichi's heart was about to burst as he was forced to watch some Hanoi scumbags attempting to hurt Yusaku... his Yusaku. There was almost nothing that could be done to get the boy out of their sleazy hands as Shoichi's hacking abilities were not infinite after all. And yet, a mysterious miracle happened and the man was able to hold his Yusaku... or who exactly was that stranger looking at him with those familiar and beloved emerald eyes..?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first attempt to write a multi-chaptered fic... The idea has got me very, very excited, so I hope to finish it for sure! Also, this is sorta my Character Study of Yusaku's possible future persona, even though we are yet so far from the series ending, yeah.
> 
> There may be some other ships and characters mentioned along the way, but the main focus is still gonna be Hotdogshipping~ And yes, older!Yusaku is sure OOC, though I wholeheartedly wish he would become something close to this near the end of the anime. Ah, and as a separate little warning: there gonna be veeeery much of a flustered Shoichi here ^^

_"Damn, how could this... Hang on! Please, just hang on, Yusaku!_ "

It was really difficult for Shoichi to keep an eye on Playmaker and trying to undo the trap he was caught into at the same time. Sweat was dripping off his forehead, his hands were shaking as they were almost smashing the cursed keyboard, his heart was racing like crazy and his thoughts were a chaotic mess. Biting his lips, the man was holding his breath and was dangerously close to suffocating as the monstrous tension kept on crushing his innards and driving him insane. His mind became a broken record over and over repeating as passionately as a prayer "Please!", "Just a little longer!", "Hold on!".

It was entirely his fault. It was Shoichi's own failure that something like this happened in the first place. If only he managed to convince Yusaku not to do this, if only he could stop him from going to that secluded area in LINK VRAINS...

The way it all happened was suspicious and risky to say the least. It began on that day when Playmaker was, as usual, taking down the Knights of Hanoi. At first there were no issues as it was as natural as breathing to Yusaku, there was barely a single Hanoi mook who posed a serious threat to him. Perhaps it was then when Shoichi should have started getting worried because to Yusaku it was nothing but convenience and, thus, the boy's pursuit after those weaklings became more and more frequent. Obsessed with his mission of vengeance he almost grew overconfident...

And then that man appeared. At first glance there seemed to be nothing off with him, simply another small fry of Hanoi which Yusaku used to defeat every time he fought them. But soon after that duel started it appeared that despite the bland look the guy was a formidable opponent, someone who could be not the last person among the Knights. That fight was very exhausting for Playmaker, there was even a moment when Shoichi seriously wanted to log in himself and shield him from harm that was not just a mere possibility while the boy's Life Points went below 500. Fortunately, Playmaker still managed to turn the tables and outwit the enemy, ending the duel in the Knight's defeat.

" _Wait!_ " the loser begged. " _If you spare me, I'll tell you something very important!_ "

Yeah... _sure_.

That was _absolutely the stupidest_ idea to believe that guy.

Shoichi actually smelled something fishy immediately, but what could he tell Yusaku who was so unwavering and stubborn in his desire to chase down and interrogate Revolver? And that guy promised to tell his leader's whereabouts if Playmaker would agree to meet up with him later at certain place, at certain time?

And yeah, it might sound insane but Yusaku _did_ agree to take this much risk.

And, naturally, paying a heavy price for his carelessness right now.

"Geez!" Ai was whining hysterically. "We're traaaaped!"

"Shut up!" Playmaker snapped. "You're not helping at all!"

"Hey excuse me! Even I have my limits on how many of these dudes I can vore at the same time! My poor stomach hurts already..."

The Ignis kept on complaining about everything, but Playmaker was no longer listening. Yes, he knew well himself that it was his naivety to actually think that anyone from Hanoi could be trustworthy. Yes, he should've never gone to these remote outskirts of LINK VRAINS and not expecting an ambush to happen. Sure thing that guy was never going to give away any information about his organization and, heck, of course he would have brought lots of reinforcements in order to dispose of him, an annoying vigilante, as the biggest threat to whatever they were planning. Playmaker was running all around the area, frantically searching for a way out but in vain. As soon as "the prey" arrived at the designated place the trap was firmly shut. It was no longer possible to log out as this function became disabled and wherever Playmaker ran an invisible barrier was blocking him, making all of his struggles useless.

On the other side of the screen Shoichi was gritting his teeth so hard that his jaw was in pain. Yusaku had somehow managed to take down about two dozens of that bastards, Ai kept on "eating" them afterwards, but the inflow of new Knights didn't seem to stop. As the fourth dozen of enemy forces was chasing after Playmaker both he and Ai were already terribly exhausted and the former was running with obviously no coherent idea where to as he breathed heavily and his face was reddened and glittering with sweat even though he was only a virtual avatar. Watching this, Shoichi could feel his throbbing heart getting ready to burst any second, and yet he couldn't do anything to help the boy out. He couldn't log in there himself, the invisible barrier was blocking him access, thus, there was neither way out nor in.

" _Curse it! Hold on! Please, hold on! I'll do it... Yusaku!_ "

It was extremely difficult to concentrate at this rate, but even though being dangerously close to heart attack Shoichi managed to get to the code of the barrier that was preventing Yusaku from escaping the scene.

"Good!" the man mumbled, nervously smiling as his face got crimson from tension. "If I can crack this, I'll be able to force a log out for him... Just wait a little longer, Yusaku! I'll definitely save you!"

In the meantime, Playmaker was able to confuse his pursuers and make them lose his trail for a little while. By this time he was already almost out of breath and no longer able to fight, his thoughts were as well akin to cockroaches that were running around in panic and refusing to come together under any circumstances. There was only a momentary flash of a solid though as he ran by a crate hidden behind one of the local warehouses' walls.

" _I can hide here!_ " Playmaker's intuition shrieked.

Was there any sense in doing so, whether the Knights not being able to find him would just go away — nothing mattered as the boy hurriedly squeezed himself into the crate. It was quite small but Playmaker simply hadn't much time to think of any other option when he heard voices and footsteps approaching in his direction. There was not a second to spare in waste, so, having bitten his lips, the boy curled up and contorted himself to fit in as he covered the crate with its lid.

"Ugh... uk..." Playmaker coughed quietly as the inside of the crate was thick with the quite realistic smells of mold and varnish.

The fetus position was also not the most comfortable but the boy held in his breath, waiting for the footsteps right outside the crate to fade into the distance, signaling that it was safe to emerge. But soon enough as he was lying in the darkness anxiety began building up in Playmaker's throat, his body started growing stiff and sore, but those guys didn't seem to hurry and walk away from his hideout. Instead, they were just standing in the dangerous radius as if waiting for him to either suffocate or give up and reveal himself for them to seize him right away.

"Crap!" grouchy voice was heard right next to the crate. "Where did that little shit go?!"

"He couldn't have logged out, could he?"

"Nah, not with our barrier. He is probably hiding somewhere."

"Hehe, it's futile. He's in our grasp."

"Let's go and look for him?"

The footsteps began drifting away. Playmaker sighed with relief, but then...

"Playmaker-samaaaa..." Ai whimpered and hiccuped.

"What now?"

"I, hic... I'm gonna... belch, hic!"

"Wha?" the boy frowned as the AI closed his face eloquently. "No! Hold it in! They haven't left yet!"

"I, hic, can't..! Too much of Hanoi shit is bad for my health! If I, hic, don't do it, hic, I'm gonna explode, hic..!"

"Ai, no! Don't you dare..!"

"F-forgive me, hic, P-playmaker-sama! I, hic, I-I... can't..!"

Before the boy could even react a belch of a monstrous volume erupted from inside the crate, reverberating and almost making it shake. Naturally, it immediately caught the Knights' attention as they looked back all simultaneously.

"What the?!"

"You stupid AI..." Playmaker huffed and then as the lid of the crate was abruptly thrown away hissed in pain as he was harshly pulled out of his hiding by a Knight gripping his bangs.

"Well-well, look who's here," he grinned like a carnivore that had found its prey and tugged the boy at his hair more, proudly demonstrating him to other "hunters". "We were worried where did you disappear to, buddy."

"Oh boy... egk?!" Ai sighed heavily, but then his hiccup stopped immediately as he got pulled with the gravity as Playmaker was brutally tossed to the side.

"Yusaku!!" Shoichi panicked as the boy got slammed against the warehouse's wall.

"Argh! Ugh..." enormous pain pierced each and every nerve in Playmaker's body and he widened his eyes in fear as he realized he got cornered by enemies surrounding him in a tight coil.

"Sorry, your game of hide-and-seek turned out to be really lame, handsome," one of them laughed mockingly.

"Now we can prove Revolver-sama that we are not just some thugs but competent bloodhounds!"

"But holly damn," suddenly, one of the Knights wolf-whistled, "this guy looks so erotic in such a tight suit! It underlines perfectly every curve of his body!"

"Wow, you're right!" other guy next to him exclaimed, having bent to take a closer look at flustered Playmaker. "Gods, what a hottie... I'm so horny now!"

"Hey," the third one smirked down at their hostage. "How about before bringing you back to our quarters we'll have some fun together, mm? I guarantee you'll enjoy it, baby..."

Playmaker barely opened his mouth as a loud gasp flew out of his throat when the Knights grabbed his legs and violently yanked him forward, pulling him closer to them. His eyes went wide in terror as one of them nonchalantly cupped his butt.

"L-let me go!" the boy thrashed in their grasp but his arms were only pinned down to the ground by two of those guys.

"Don't hate us for this," the man whose hands were groping his ass purred and leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "If you'll be a good boy, it's not gonna... urgh!"

"Playmaker-sama!" Ai yelped desperately, looking at his beautiful emerald eyes literally burning with fury as he kicked that pervert right in his guts.

"Y-you bitch..!"

The boy grunted when he received a hard blow to the side of his face. He could feel the pain and the taste of blood in his mouth.

"Easy there, Playmaker- _sama_ ," one of the Knights squeezing his arm in his grip cackled. "Why don't you just obey to us and relax? It would be much easier for all of us, honestly. It won't hurt much if you stay still and we won't need to ruin your pretty face with ugly bruises."

"I said, let me go! You're disgusting!" the boy kept squirming, arching his back, struggling to kick his assaulters, but only a gasp of sharp pain was released as his arms got twisted and his legs were forcefully spread apart.

"Shut the hell up!" the man who was previously hit by him hissed angrily and started ripping the lower half of his bodysuit.

"U-ughk!" Playmaker's heart almost stopped at the sight of his own genitalia getting so shamefully exposed, so he acted quickly and collected all the blood he had in his mouth and spat it on one of the men closest to him.

"Gh! You little shit!"

"Get off! Don't touch me!!" the boy screamed as loud as he could.

"Ugh!"

Playmaker managed to free one of his legs from the tight grasp and kicked the guy who was holding him in the stomach, making him fall back and groan in pain.

"Erk..!" but then someone punched him twice as hard as his kick.

"Come on! Hurry up and pull him down!" came an impatient voice.

"Roger!"

The boy's struggle became more violent as very soon there was nothing left of his outfit but shreds and his cock was in full view for the Knights to watch.

"Stop! Don't touch me..!" he cried when one of them roughly grabbed it and started rubbing its head leaking with pre-cum. "Let go!"

"Shut up!" one of the men hissed and pinched the boy's nipples forcing a pained squeak out of him. "Geez! You've got a nice voice but you're so annoying! Someone, gag him!"

"Nfgh!"

One of the Knights had quickly snapped his fingers and stuffed a ball of cloth into Playmaker's mouth, and the dryness of it immediately made the boy feel nauseous. It was no longer possible for him to shout, his voice wouldn't come out.

"Playmaker-sama!" Ai cried. "You scumbags!! If only I hadn't got indigestion, I would have vored you all!!"

"Silence, Ignis!" the Knight who was roughly pumping Playmaker's cock in his hand snapped. "Revolver-sama is going to take care of you personally!"

"Wha?! He's gonna fuck me too?! I'd like to see him try!!"

This joke of the AI was way too cruel in the current situation but Playmaker no longer cared. All he cared about was the cloth that reached the back of his throat and was suffocating him, the way his body was growing hot and tears uncontrollably streaming down his flushed cheeks. These bastards were yet only touching his nipples and jerking his dick but he was already going crazy at the thought of how treacherous his body, even if it was only virtual, turned out to be. The unwanted hand job was making his penis grow rock hard as pre-cum was overflowing from the urethra. His nipples that were squeezed, tugged and rolled between sticky fingers became erected as well and were sticking out for those perverts' amusement.

"Ah, holly shit," one of them sultryly moaned at the sight. "I actually got hard."

"Just do it already so I can have my turn," the guy who was stretching Playmaker's ass hole with his fingers huffed.

"I wanna be the next one!"

They were disgustingly babbling as their hands and tongues violated the boy's body, forcing him to choke on his gag and tears.

"Nmphghhhh!!"

He desperately tried to shake his legs and resist at least somehow but it was all futile and only made those scums laugh their asses out.

"Aww, you're hella cute, Playmaker- _sama_!"

"If you think about it," one of them purred as he licked the boy's cheek, "doesn't he resemble a girl?"

"But he is a dude. See?" other guy roughly grabbed his cock, forcing a muffled grunt of pain out of him.

"Who cares?" the third Knight teasingly nibbled at Playmaker's nipple. "I am personally bi so it's fine either way."

"What about doing him from behind? Chicks can be done from behind too, no?"

"Heh, it's always better to do from behind either it's a chick or a dude."

"Uggh..!" 

New portion of tears squirted out of Playmaker's wide open eyes as dry hands went across his thighs and ass and the feeling of absolute repulsion coursed through his entire body as he was forcefully rolled onto his belly with his butt puckered up. The boy couldn't hold back a muffled shriek as more fingers pressed into his rear hole, opening it wide.

"Wow, your insides are so neat," the man behind him taunted and Playmaker shuddered at the feeling of erect length enthusiastically rubbing against his entrance.

The boy swallowed some of saliva that gathered in his mouth and it felt disgusting. 

Yeah, more than scared or angry Playmaker felt disgusting.

_Why did this have to happen..?_

He was only trying to learn the truth about his past, find out why he was tortured as a small kid, who could have possibly done it to an innocent child? And yet those people...

_No. Not that._

Those _inhumans_ were about to violate him, rape him, gangbang him.

_Make his life into even worse Hell than it already was._

The very thought of it was making Playmaker go completely insane.

If only everything turned out differently.

If only he were able to fight these bastards.

If only he were able to escape.

_If only from the very beginning he had listened to..._

The boy turned pale and bug-eyed as he remembered that at this very moment he was most likely being watched by...

" _Kusanagi-san..!!_ "

" **Yusaku!!** "

Pallid, the man behind the screen jolted up, his chair fell with a loud thump. Shoichi's heart got blown into bloody pieces, his fists violently slammed against the keyboard and at that very moment...

"Ugh?!"

A sudden white flash of extremely bright light blinded Shoichi for a brief moment, obscuring the view entirely as he yelled like a wild wounded beast, almost feeling his eyes being burned out.

" _Yusa..._ "  was the last image that appeared before the man's eyes as he thought he was going to die, the very last sight of the boy smiling to him...

But then it all stopped.

"Huh?" Shoichi was taken aback, realizing that he was still alive and kicking inside Cafe Nagi. "What in the world did just..?"

" _Hey, what the hell?! Where did he..._ "

Voices that came from dynamics made the man's blood turn cold as all the scenes he witnessed a few seconds ago flashed before his eyes. His heart sank as he abruptly threw his gaze back at the monitors.

"Yusa..! Ku..?"

The last syllable came out as a shocked whisper when Shoichi saw as clear as a day that the boy was no longer in LINK VRAINS and his previously turned on assaulters were left completely flabbergasted by this miracle.

"Yusaku?" so was Shoichi as his knees buckled and he fell onto the floor, staring at the screen in disbelief.

Could it have been... no, it _couldn't_ have been that he accidentally _deleted_ Yusaku, could it?!

"Y-yu... sa..." shaky voice was accompanied with tears running down the man's pale cheeks.

But all of a sudden a quiet buzzing noise made Shoichi nervously flinch and look back at the cabin from where Yusaku would often go into the VRAINS.

"W-wha..?"

He listened closely and then his emotions got a 180 degree overturn as his eyes shone with joy and a radiant smile illuminated his face.

"Yusaku!!" not even getting back up on his feet Shoichi crawled on his knees in the cabin's direction. "So I did force a log out for you after all! Yusaku..."

The door smoothly slid to the side, revealing the unconscious boy lying on the floor.

"Yusaku!" Shoichi pulled him into his arms and squeezed in a tight embrace, crying from happiness. "Yusaku..."

He was nuzzling against the boy akin to a wounded kitten to its master as it was desperately seeking for comfort and warmth.

"Yusaku... Yusaku..." the man kept repeating his name like a prayer as he showered his face with passionate kisses and thanked all gods of all religions he knew that they kept him unharmed.

Nothing else mattered to Shoichi, no one else mattered as much as Yusaku to him at this very moment. It was his, his, only Shoichi's fault that he couldn't prevent the boy from something so horrific. This boy... The person who always mattered to Shoichi the most was about to get tainted by the Knights of Hanoi and if it wasn't for some miracle he would have been forced to watch him getting irreparably broken. Yusaku... his boy, his friend, his everything, the very last drop of light left in Shoichi's world sunken in darkness ever since his brother became broken by Hanoi... and Shoichi was so dangerously close to experience that immense pain and grief again.

"Shit... Shit! Sorry! I'm so sorry..!"

The man simply couldn't stop kissing Yusaku's smooth and warm cheeks, wetting them with tears. He was torn from inside by mixed emotions of shame and self-hatred, relief and pure happiness.

It was so close, so damn close... but it was okay now.

Shoichi managed to snatched away the boy at the very last moment before his body, even if only virtual, and soul would have became crushed by those sleazy scoundrels.

_It was okay now._

Shoichi was holding his precious boy tight, smiling through tears and lovingly stroking his hair.

_Yes, it was all okay now._

The man even chuckled joyfully. Yusaku was there, with him. His fragile body, his softness, the lovely scent of his cologne giving off sweet wisteria notes...

"Huh?"

The latter point made Shoichi suddenly open his eyes.

Yusaku's... _cologne_?

"Wait. Wha..?"

It took a few moments for the man to process this fact.

Cologne, cologne... was Yusaku _ever_ wearing a cologne?

No, the boy was using a deodorant... but _a cologne_? And with such a strong, sweet scent?

"Mm..." the body in the man's arms wiggled a bit. "Sho-chan..?"

He shuddered at the sound of a familiar voice and his eyes slowly met familiar emerald ones, and yet...

"Yu..." there was an utter confusion written all over Shoichi's yet again pale face as he was staring at the person in his embrace. "Who are you?"


	2. Guest From The Future

"So this is where I used to live... brings back memories."

Smiling nostalgically, the person was walking around the apartment, and Shoichi's eyes were literally glued to him.

_Could it be..? Could it be only an illusion?_

But no matter how many times Shoichi blinked or rubbed his eyes this wasn't fading away, reality was left untouched in its complete bizzarity. Thumps of footsteps measuring the room sounded unrealistically loud and the man's head was simply swimming as his brain refused to accept this as a real-matter fact.

_No, it was not..._

"Sho-chan?"

"Y-yeah?" the man shuddered at the very, _very_ unusual way he was referred to, and his own voice sounded so muffled that he failed to recognize it.

" _Impossible, impossible! Not possible! Not ever possible!_ " his mind also shrieked hysterically, denying an option of trying to comprehend what was right in front of him.

"You look very pale. You should better take a seat."

A hand gently pressed on Shoichi's shoulder and forced him to sit down on a chair next to a computer desk.

"Shall I bring you some tea, Master?" cute mechanic voice chirped as if there was nothing extraordinary happening.

"Yes. Thank you, Roboppy-chan."

This small dialog made Shoichi chuckle a bit nervously. At this very moment he was sincerely envying the little robo-maid and her limited artificial intelligence. Everything was as simple for Roboppy-chan as her own eyes could see, no catches, no weird hallucinations. There was no way she would be worried over certain... inconsistencies that were so painfully obvious to Shoichi.

Master was Master for Roboppy-chan, no more, no less.

When the robo-maid slided out of their sight, the person in front of Shoichi sighed heavily and looked down at him with all seriousness.

"Look... I understand your condition all too well, but we should move on and try to puzzle it out. First, I am really who I am. Second, I'm weirded out too. Third, we need to figure how in the world did it happen to begin with."

Shoichi groaned and leaned on his knees, rubbing his temples.

Things were already so confusing and every new second of this surreality was only adding to his headache. And he probably looked so pathetically dumbfounded that the person chuckled and crouched down in front of him, taking Shoichi's hands as if the man had suddenly turned into a small kid.

"So..." he looked up humbly and his eyes met amazing emerald ones. "Would you repeat? Who are you again..?"

"Did I really change so much over the years?" warm smile beamed on such a familiar face. "It's me. Fujiki Yusaku, only twenty six years old."

This stament said in absolutely jokes-aside tone turned Shoichi's world upside down once again as he shuddered and stared at the man in front of him dumbfoundedly, realizing that it was not some kind of a weird dream after all.

This person was definitely Yusaku, Shoichi was ninty eight percent sure about it. Why not all one hundred though? Well, there were some peculiarities which Shoichi himself wondered how he didn't notice them right away. Perhaps, it happened because his vision was blury from all those tears or, most  likely, because the man was just too emotional and the only thing mattered to him was that Yusaku, no matter how he looked, was in safety?

And not looking at the person he was holding was the first mistake Shoichi made.

***

"Yu... Who are you?"

Shoichi couldn't have known for sure how his face looked like at that moment, but the one right in front of him was probably reflecting his expression as perfectly as a mirror.

"Me?" painfully familiar lips slowly parted, letting out low and masculine voice that was just as much known to Shoichi. "Sho-chan, what do you..?"

The last thread of understanding what the heck was going was about to tear apart, so Shoichi desperately blinked, hoping that the hallucination would fade away... but no, it did not.

Yusaku, – or was that really him? – was looking right into his soul, his bottomless eyes were wide open, reflecting, probably, the same shock Shoichi felt at that very moment.

There was no way he couldn't feel one, to be exact. Flabbergasted, he thoroughly "scanned" the Yusaku in his arms as his eyes gazed him up and down... and a critical error alarmed inside his head.

Yes, the "who are you" question was the most logical thing to vocalize.

And that question didn't just root from the fact that, for some reason, instead of his usual school uniform Yusaku was wearing a pale blue dress shirt with a few of its upper buttons undone, dark, almost black, trousers and brown glossy shoes. Seriously, that wasn't the clothes the boy had went online in! Though, to be honest, neither them nor that sudden cologne didn't make Shoichi immediately doubt the identity of the person in his arms. Sure, there was this dark blue hair that spiked outward in the back and contained light blue bangs with pink accents, those amazing emerald green eyes, those facial features... though Shoichi noticed that they suddenly became much sharper, deprived of any light and soft femininity that the Yusaku he knew had always possessed.

Right. Shoichi realized that the Yusaku in his embrace looked at least a decade or so older than usual. The Yusaku he held was no longer resembling an adolescent but was a pure definition of a mature ikemen in his late twenties.

"Sho-chan?" all of a sudden this other Yusaku tilted his head and suspiciously narrowed his eyes, looking at the man. "Wha... What happened? What was that?"

Shoichi's eyes became like saucers as the man resembling Yusaku reached his hand and softly touched his cheek.

"Are you all right? Something strange happened when I was logging out of VRAINS... For a second I even thought I was going to perish!"

Shoichi couldn't take his eyes off the man's lips as they soundlessly formed the word "dear" and... slowly started getting closer, closing the gap between them and Shoichi's. Shoichi was watching this oddity exactly five thumps of his own heart. Every knock echoed loudly in his chest. But as it became clear that it wasn't some sort of a joke and Yusaku(?)'s lips lightly, like a butterfly's wing, touched his...

"H-hey!" Shoichi recoiled from him like from a leper, his cheeks were burning crimson. "W-what do you think you're doing?!"

Stunned, the man resembling Yusaku was staring at him as if seeing him for the first time. A brief, uncertain silence fell between them. This tension lasted for about a minute and the atmosphere around grew quite heated, or so it seemed to flustered Shoichi.

Finally, this other Yusaku spoke.

"What are you talking about?" even though the voice was kept rather calm it had some obvious notes of ringing alarm.

Yusaku's look-alike rose to his feet, and Shoichi, having glanced up at him, noted that he was taller than the actual boy.

The man swallowed.

Yusaku(?) kept frowning at him from above, forcing him to feel cold settling down in his stomach and anxiety rooting directly into his very core. This lingering, unblinking look somehow reminded Shoichi of old photo cameras and for a brief moment he could've even sworn he saw those pupils open and click akin to shutters.

"So," the voice of Yusaku(?) became emotionless and cold, "I think you are not the one I originally thought you were. Who are you?"

This imperious stern voice, the way he folded his arms and kept glaring as if Shoichi was a tiny bug made the man snap and he quickly got up on his own feet.

"Excuse me!" he frowned at Yusaku(?) as well, taking the position of reciprocal attack. "How about before demanding something from other people you go and introduce yourself properly first??"

The intensity of circumspection on Yusaku(?)‘s face toned down a little bit and he calmly looked in Shoichi's eyes.

"Sorry. My name is Fujiki. Fujiki Yusaku. And you must be Kusanagi Shoichi, I suppose?"

"Why "suppose"?" the man sighed, scratching the back of his head. "One and only!"

"Weird..."

Shoichi's fingers twitched and he barely opened his mouth to retort about what in the world was wrong with his name, but everything remained unsaid as the man noticed how this Yusaku(?)‘s gaze was traveling all over the place. Emerald eyes were carefully studying the surroundings and with each passing second their owner's face was turning paler and paler.

"Hold on a second..." he said in a dazed whisper.

He stepped outside of the VR cabin and a violent shudder ran down his spine.

"Wha... What is this..?!"

Totally confused, Shoichi was silently watching the man stumble backwards akin to a little kid who saw something really creepy.

"T-this place..." his eyes flickered over the truck once again, his face was deadly pale and his posture was incredibly strained as if he was surrounded by a swarm of blood-thirsty ghosts ready to vore him any moment. "Is this Cafe Nagi?!"

"Um... yeah?" Shoichi shrugged uncertainly.

"But this... can't be!"

Cold sweat appeared on the man's forehead as Yusaku(?) slowly raised his trembling arm and clutched the fabric of his dress shirt in the area where his heart was. Yusaku(?)‘s breathing became ragged, his pupils seriously shrunk in size and he slouched his shoulders as he pretty much resembled a wild animal driven into corner by hunters.

"N-no... w-wait!" the man's legs were shaking and before he could drop down onto the floor Shoichi quickly rolled a chair for him to flop on.

"Hey! Hang on, okay?!" he rushed to get some water, the sight of a person who resembled Yusaku so much having a panic attack made Shoichi forget about the overall weirdness of this situation. "Here! Drink! Breathe!"

Yusaku(?) accepted a glass offered to him even though it was very hard to hold it as his fingers kept trembling.

"Come on," Shoichi tried to keep his voice as calm as possible as he helped the man to take a sip while holding the bottom of the glass. "Careful!" he patted his back as he choked and coughed. "There. Drink it all. Breathe. Slow and steady. Good..." 

Another Shoichi's hand held Yusaku(?)‘s shoulder and its touch was so soothing that the man relatively calmed down as soon as the dryness of his mouth went away and an imaginary ball of cotton stuck in his throat dissolved.

"There we go," Shoichi gave him a small relieved smile, not even noticing that his hand was gently stroking his back. "Are you okay?"

Yusaku(?) looked up at him with such a worn-out expression and his face was yet so wan that Shoichi's heart sank. For a short heartbeat this Yusaku(?)‘s face overlapped with the one of the Yusaku he knew.

"I... I think so," this other Yusaku(?) nodded though his dismay hadn't subsided completely. "But... I don't understand. Wasn't... Wasn't Café Nagi burned down eight years ago..?"

Now the suffocating cotton ball stuck in Shoichi's throat as his brain froze.

_What... What kind of a stupid joke was that?!_

"That's right," emerald eyes looked all over the place again. "Even though it looks exactly as I remember... Also."

And then those eyes pierced right through Shoichi's soul as if trying to read him.

"Your hair. Less than an hour ago it was long. And since we went in VR together you couldn't have possibly got another haircut, there was no time."

"Huh?" Shoichi went bug-eyed. "What in the eff are you talking about? My hair has always been like this!"

"Yes. In the past. But you have been wearing it long for the last three years."

"No, no, no!" the man shook his head, vehemently protesting. "Wrong! I have been not! And I'm not planning to either! Just what the hell are you..."

But another tidal wave of Shoichi's logical questions died down instantly when he saw Yusaku(?)‘s face getting pallid once again as his shocked wide-eyed gaze froze at one of the monitors in front of him. There were displayed the current time and date.

"W-what is this?" his throat turned much drier than before and he could hardly speak as his voice was too shaky. "H-how? I-It's 4:35 P.M., J-June 15th... 2027?!"

The way Yusaku(?) emphasized the year sent some real chills down Shoichi's spine.

"Well..." he mumbled indistinctly. "Yeah?"

The state Yusaku(?) fell in was very close to some sort of catalytic trance. He wasn't moving, his breath turned very subtle. One could have easily thought he was not a living human but a marble statue if it wasn't for his slightly trembling lips and nervously glimmering eyes.

"This is... impossible," a drop of sweat ran down his temple as a tentative crooked smile twitched at the corners of his lips, turning his expression in that of a madman. "This must be some sort of mistake! That's not true! It's ridiculous! Is this a dream?! Right, I must be dreaming!"

Before Shoichi could react at least somehow, Yusaku(?) hastily rolled up the sleeve of his shirt. Muttering as if in frenzy "wake up, wake up, wake up" he pinched his own arm once, twice, thrice... until at the god knows which pinch a reddish bruise became visible on pale skin.

"Hey, hey, hey!" horrified at the sight, Shoichi grabbed his arm, preventing him from hurting himself any more, and pulled him into a firm hug. "Stop that. It's alright. Everything is gonna be alright!"

Yusaku(?) shuddered in this embrace, his heart started pounding loudly. Shoichi held him tightly as he soothingly stroked his head and akin to mantra kept whispering into his ear that everything would be alright. Yusaku(?)‘s eyes became half-lidded, a sudden warmth was born deep within him and spread throughout entire body as he timidly rose his arms and clung onto the man's coat, burying his face in his shoulder. This warm, nice feeling of comfort... it was so familiar. Gradually, his inner turmoil settled down.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, pulling away from Shoichi and slightly blushing. "I... I think that was _very_ inadequate reaction for a grown man who is twenty six. Heh, though I cannot even imagine what other reaction could one have if they find themselves in their past out of the blue."

"Their... past?" Shoichi blinked a couple of times.

Actually, he didn't think of the idea of pinching himself as crazy at the moment.

"Well, yes," Yusaku(?) said slowly, trying to process everything in his head. "As far as it seems, that's exactly what happened."

"Uum..." Shoichi scratched the back of his head. "So, uh, maybe let's try and sort it out step by step? For starters, I'm Kusanagi Shoichi and I own this food truck, Café Nagi. I'm acquainted with and, um, a good friend of a boy named Fujiki Yusaku, he's currently sixteen and attending high school."

The man's interlocutor shuddered as he heard all this and froze in his yet lingering feeling of slight disbelief. It was then when Shoichi noticed a Duel Disc on his arm.

"Wow, it sure looks... old?"

There was no mistake, that was definitely the Duel Disk Shoichi remembered the Yusaku he knew always had. But something was very different with it: it was the same old-type model that required physical cards, and yet it looked _way_ older than it was as its colors faded quite a lot, in some places the paint even crumbled, also lots of scratches didn't added to its appearance any sense of good condition. Shoichi seriously wondered if such a Duel Disk was even functional.

"Huh? Oh, this?" Yusaku(?) rose his arm a bit for the man to take a better look. "Yes, it really is. After all, I've been in possession of it for so long that many people think of me as crazy."

Shoichi muttered something similar to "I see" as he kept staring at empty black glass on the top of the device.

"He's no longer there, if that's what you're wondering about," he was given a chuckle in response. "Good for both of us, though I do admit that I miss him from time to time."

Shoichi slowly looked up at him with his eyes big out of sheer shock.

Gods, was it _truly_ Fujiki Yusaku?

The Yusaku who was always annoyed by Ai?

The Yusaku who was always so rude and hard on the little guy?

The Yusaku who occasionaly kept threatening to delete him?

No, seriously.

 _Who_ was the Yusaku Shoichi was staring at at the moment, the Yusaku who was smiling so softly as he spoke about the AI?

"Do I sound nothing like myself?" as if having read his thoughts the man smiled at Shoichi. "Don't worry. I _am_ Yusaku, just older and calmer."

Their eyes met and Shoichi was unable to return his charming smile, only giving him extra awkward and clumsy one.

"Hey, Sho-chan?"

"Y-yes?" the man was slightly startled at the sudden change of Yusaku's tone.

"I've thought of something," he became serious and composed, just like Shoichi used to know him. "Since you paid attention to my Duel Disk's condition... there were actually some problems with it functioning properly. What if... uh. Gods, I feel so tired."

"Shall I take you home?" Shoichi offered it straightway as he saw his pallid face.

The weirdness of the situation took a back seat because the man would always worry about Yusaku, and right now it didn't really matter how old he looked like and what "era" he was from.

To Shoichi Yusaku was always Yusaku, someone he deeply cared about.

And the person in question caught that feeling like a precious sunbeam that illuminated his face as he smiled gently at the man.

"Of course. I fully trust you."

***

When they arrived at the destination though doubts began flooding Shoichi's head all over again. Even after Yusaku made an attempt to reassure him and Roboppy-chan brought them some nice verbal tea, the man couldn't stop shooting weird glances at this guest from the future.

Heh, "Guest From The Future". Shoichi wouldn't mind to see a movie like that, but to experience this in reality? He wasn't sure.

"Sho-chan?"

"Huh?" he flinched as Yusaku's voice partially dragged him from his ultra-confused state of mind. "W-what is it?"

"Just so you know," Yusaku was sitting on bed as he lowered his gaze and gripped onto his cup, "I barely understand what's going on either."

Shoichi sighed heavily as he hung his head.

So many abnormal things happened today, one worse than another. Aside from figuring out what was the matter with this older Yusaku Shoichi still had to deal with the fresh wound in his own heart. The sight of Playmaker getting groped by a dozen of those horny beasts, the way they shamelessly exposed his body, teased, licked, nibbled at him... to those goddamn Knights of Hanoi Yusaku, his Yusaku, was nothing but a cheap entertainment, a good-looking toy which they could and were about to...

A realization hit Shoichi's head harder than a boulder.

"Hold on!" he shuddered violently, not even noticing that half of his cup's content spilt right onto his hoodie. "But if you're here, then where in the world is my... the Yusaku from this time?!"

His heart was pounding out of his chest as he kept piercing the older one with his eyes filled with insane alarm.

_Yusaku... The one he knows... his Yusaku..._

"This..." the adult one stroke his chin, his face got tense and his voice was full of uncertainty. "This is only my hypothesis, but it's very likely... What if he and I switched places?"

"Eh?" Shoichi blinked. "What do you mean? How is that even possible?"

"If I knew that, I would have already tried to get back home, don't you think?" came a little saddened chuckle.

"Ah, sorry," the man averted his eyes as guilt prickled him.

"Don't worry," Yusaku shook his head and then looked up at him. "More importantly, your clothes are soaked. Wait a second, I'm going to get a towel."

He put his cup at the table and went to the bathroom, leaving Shoichi to wonder at how well this Yusaku knew the place, as if he really used to live here. Soon, he returned with the said towel.

"Here," but instead of giving it to Shoichi he suddenly kneeled in front of him and started wiping the man's hoodie and pants himself, having made him blush.

"H-hey, what are you doing?"

"Making sure that you're dry and clean," Yusaku replied absolutely casually, rubbing Shoichi's belly and occasionally touching his groin. "Now where was I? Regarding time traveling?"

Emerald eyes looked up at him and Shoichi felt his head was about to explode from overheat that was burning his cheeks.

"Y-you said something about you two having switched places," the man turned his face away from Yusaku, silently scolding himself from such inappropriate feelings at this very moment.

"Ah yes," Yusaku finished cleaning Shoichi, unknowingly making him feel a great deal of relief, and returned to sitting on bed. "I have a theory about what could have happened. During that time, right before supposed switch occurred, Sho-chan and I were in LINK VRAINS on a... we went for a stroll. We were about to log out when suddenly a bright flash of white light that came from my Duel Disk blinded me and made me fall unconscious. Heh," he nervously chuckled, "for a short moment before passing out I thought I was dying... You know, even if I were totally freaked out about waking up here, I was still happy about being at least alive... maybe alive?"

Shoichi's heart sank as he saw his pale face contort in a confused miserable expression, but then Yusaku shook his head, collecting himself once again.

"Anyway," he asked Shoichi, "what about Yusaku from this era? Was he in VR too?"

The man shuddered. The cursed images of the boy about to get gang raped flashed before his eyes, burning into his very core with hellish agony. But before the older Yusaku could notice it Shoichi put himself together.

"Yes," and yet he answered in this strange, robotic voice as he clenched his fist. "Yusaku was... having some trouble with the Knights of Hanoi and was unable to log out on his own, so I had to help him."

" _Huh?_ "

Something bizzare caught Shoichi's attention.

This older Yusaku didn't flinch, no, his entire expression didn't change at all when he heard "the Knights of Hanoi" and "having some trouble".

_This Yusaku didn't even waver, almost as if... he never experienced any of that._

But that didn't matter much to Shoichi, to tell the truth. He simply decided not to dwelve into details.

"I had to force a log out for him."

"A forced log-out?" Yusaku, apparently, didn't even notice Shoichi's anxious disposition as he divided deeper into his own thoughts, sorting all pieces of information he had so far into one logical chain. "I see... But let me guess. Something went wrong?"

"Y-yeah," Shoichi stuttered a bit, stunned at the sight of such a familiar concentrated and serious face.

"Is that so... Then I suppose there might three ways to possibly explain the cause of this phenomena. First, something is wrong with my Duel Disk. Nothing weird about that actually: a device this old could have easily malfunctioned in the most bizarre way, I shouldn't have used it to log in or log out of LINK VRAINS."

"Then why did you..?"

"You may call it stupid nostalgia causing me to keep that thing as a memento and making me unable to throw it away," Yusaku smirked. "Second, I noticed that the console in your truck was damaged."

Shoichi squirmed in his seat a bit, remembering how he smashed the keyboard in helpless fury.

"That could be the cause too. Because of that you could have input some strange code which leads us to the third cause. You have probably accidentally cracked the Universe itself, Sho-chan."

"Eeeh?!"

Shoichi almost fell off his chair but Yusaku's face remained stony-serious.

"If that's so," the corners of his lips only twitched in a smirk once, "then you must be the most legendary hacker in history. Don't be so nervous though. I'm just kidding."

Shoichi blushed as he scratched the back of his head and mumbled.

"I wouldn't mind being one if circumstances were different... More important, what are we gonna do now? Is there any way to switch you back?"

"I'm not sure about that right now," Yusaku's face became gloomier. "We'll need to do some research about what happened today. But you know, there is something I already know might help us."

"What exactly?"

"My Duel Disk. You see, in my era this model is so scrapped that it's literally impossible to find any sort of details for it. I figure if we want to somehow advance in solving our situation, we need to fix my Disk first and foremost."

"Oh! I think there would be no problem," Shoichi smiled. "Your Disk's model is not the latest one here either but there are still details for it available at stores if you look for it."

"That's good to hear. Because I'll definitely need it when I'll try to log in the next time."

"I see... Though wait. Why would you need to do it?"

"My hypothesis is that something happened during that short period of transition out of VR and into the real world. Perhaps, when you "cracked the Universe" both me and the Yusaku from this era were transitioning into the real world simultaneously, but whatever you did to the time and space materia caused us to switch and instead of our respective worlds log out in different spaces and timelines."

"Different... spaces and timelines?"

"That's right," Yusaku nodded. "Time is not linear and it would be a serious mistake to state that I came from the future. The future of this era's Yusaku is yet unknown since he haven't experienced it so far. It would be more correct to say that I came from one of the countless parallel universes since my past self is not the Yusaku you know."

"But... how so?" Shoichi became confused even worse. "You said you used to live here, you recognized Café Nagi and..."

"What I meant to say, every day, every single minute we encounter different options regarding every action, every path we're about to take. Because of that there are so many different possible parallel timelines and universes depending on what options we have picked. We picked one and created one future, we picked another one – there is another universe that was born from this particular choice."

"So you're saying you're not the Yusaku I know?"

"Definitely not. Besides, I have my own Sho-chan in my universe."

"Your own..." these words suddenly turned Shoichi's cheeks pink. "H-hey. May I ask you something?"

"Yes?"

"Well, about that..." the man looked to the side shyly. "Why do you keep calling me "Sho-chan"? Since when do you address me like this?"

"Oh," Yusaku's eyes widened for a brief moment and a tint of redness appeared on his face too as he scratched the back of his head. "It's... It's quite a long and interesting story, however... I don't think you're ready to hear it right away."

"What does this mean?" Shoichi raised an eyebrow.

"I'll explain it a bit later... maybe. Anyway, if you're not comfortable with "Sho-chan", how should I call you? If I remember correctly from my own timeline, I used to call you "Kusanagi-san" when I was sixteen?"

"T-that's so. But..."

"What is it?" Yusaku blinked in confusion at the sight of the man's face getting redder.

"I-I wouldn't mind if you called me "Shoichi-san", if that's okay?"

Yusaku couldn't help smiling at the man's kinda adorable flustered expression.

"Of course it's okay, Shoichi-san," he yawned a bit. "I'm sure your Yusaku will evolve from "Kusanagi-san" to "Sho-chan" too eventually. It took me six years from this moment on."

"So the me you know has been "Sho-chan" for four or so years?" the man smiled and then his eyes widened in shock as he noticed a faint shine on Yusaku's left hand. "Hang on. Is that... Are you married?!"

Yusaku shuddered as he noticed how much Shoichi's eyes got glued to the thin platinum band around his ring finger but still managed a smile.

"I am. Is that so surprising?"

"You bet it is!" Shoichi grinned a bit mischievously. "For you to actually get with a girl! It's a realm of fantastic!"

"Well," surprisingly, Yusaku didn't show any sign of being confused or insulted as he smiled mysteriously, "my spouse _is_ a very nice and caring person. I love them so much, they're the ones I have the most faith in."

An invisible sharp needle suddenly prickled Shoichi's chest when he saw how soft and gentle was Yusaku's look as he spoke about his spouse.

" _What... is this feeling..?_ "

"Is that so?" Shoichi didn't give away his confusion as he chuckled as cheerfully as he could. "Good for you! I hope you'll be able to return home soon!"

"I hope so too..." Yusaku sighed heavily. "But simply hoping is not enough. We need to research everything thoroughly and discover the way to "fix the Universe" that you have probably "cracked". The very sound of it doesn't scream as simple at all."

"Oh, you're right..."

"Anyway..." Yusaku yawned and stretched himself. "It's already dark outside and I'm too exhausted to think straight at the moment. You wouldn't mind if I stay and sleep here tonight, right?"

"Of course not. This is your home after all."

Yusaku returned Shoichi's smile and curled into a ball on top of the bed. Such an unexpectedly cute position for a grown man.

"If I have some rest, my brain will function better," he yawned, his eye-lids were rather heavy. "We'll figure out what the hell is going on here."

"We will," Shoichi nodded, trying to make himself sound as certain as possibly, but then he thought for a couple of moments and muttered quietly. "Um... Yusaku?"

But the person in question was already sleeping soundly, taking Shoichi aback.

" _This face..._ "

Even if it looked older than Shoichi remembered it, it still had the same adorable serene expression as its owner was submerged deep into slumberland. And yet, there was something definitely different about that face, something that Shoichi himself couldn't explain.

"Oh gods..." he yawned, feeling exhaustion taking ahold of his body and mind as well as he kept looking at sleeping Yusaku.

Shoichi sighed heavily and, having tucked the guest from the future into a blanket and leaving him behind with only Roboppy to "guard" him, slowly walked towards the apartment's exit.

"Good night, Shoichi-san..." Yusaku mumbled in his sleep, having made the man shudder.

"G-good night, Yusaku," he answered and, not looking back, increased his pace.

He felt so suddenly and unbearably sleepy that he hurried to his truck as soon as he got outside. 

Inside Café Nagi, having barely put together his cot, Shoichi flopped face down, grunting.

"Gods..." he mumbled into his pillow, passing out right away.

This day was so crazy that complete absence of dreams and pitch-black emptiness of mind felt like a blessing to Kusanagi Shoichi who kept subconsciously praying that everything happened today was a mere nightmare.

And upon waking up from it he'll see a familiar face of a certain adolescent boy, safe and sound and here with him. 


	3. "Magic Mumbo-Jumbo"

Yusaku was dreaming. He was lying in someone's arms, and those arms were so dear, so warm that his heart was pounding like crazy.

"Yusaku," someone's dear voice whispered. "I'm here for you, you know that? I'm always here."

That person, who seemed to be the one and only, put his hand under Yusaku's waist and lifted the boy ever so slightly.

"But even if I am," the someone sighed, "you're still being so impetuous most of the times. I know it's my fault that you are dragged into this to begin with, and yet my heart won't be able to take it if something horrible happens to you. That's why..."

Through the dark shroud of sleep Yusaku reached to brush that person's bangs away from their eyes, but they began to move farther and farther. Moving away, they kept calling out Yusaku's name.

"W-wait..!" the boy suddenly felt severe cold clutching its fangs right into his heart.

"Yusaku... I'm so sorry."

"What are you... no! Come back! Please!"

"Sorry..."

" _Kusanagi-san!!_ "

Sonorous echo melted in the infinite darkness Yusaku found himself trapped in. It was cold. So unimaginably cold that the boy, trembling, curled up in the fetal position, wrapping his arms around himself in the worst possible hug of loneliness.

"Kusa... nagi... sa..." as every inch of his body was in dull pain Yusaku could feel hoarfrost appear on his twitching lips and freeze shackle every single one of his nerves.

Yusaku let out a shaky exhale, cold vapor came out of his mouth as he closed his eyes and gave in into this horrible feeling of being abandoned by the one person he cherished and adored the most...

 _Lick_.

A sudden touch made the boy shudder and abruptly open his eyes.

_Lick. Lick._

There was a lukewarm feeling of brushing against his cheeks and it was very similar to...

 _Lick, lick, lick_.

No mistake. Someone was definitely licking Yusaku's face and doing it quite eagerly.

_Lick, lick, lick, lick!_

"Oof... Kusanagi-san!" the boy couldn't help laughing as the cold of loneliness faded away and the nice warmth reemerged deep within him. "W-what are you doing?! Cut it out!"

"Wan-wan!"

Such an answer was what knocked Yusaku out of his slumber that very instant. He shot his eyes wide open, but instead of certain familiar face saw a...

"Huh..?"

"Wan-wan!" a dog's muzzle didn't vanish, instead, there came even more of cheerful barking and a small tongue enthusiastically brushed his cheeks.

Breath hitched in Yusaku's throat as he abruptly shot up and jerked back, staring at the animal he never saw before with his eyes bulged from shock. A tiny dachshund pup with light brown fur, black ears and a pink ribbon around its neck kept barking as it merrily jumped on top of blanket and energetically wiggled its tail.

"W-what in the world..?!" but Yusaku never finished his sentence as his peripheral vision caught another strange thing which caused his gaze to flicker around the room and as it did something akin to a dry ball of cotton clogged his throat.

Trying to struggle with it, he took a deep breath, inhaled and exhaled a couple of times, rubbing his eyes and blinking.

No. Nothing had changed. Yusaku was still there.

_And that wasn't normal._

There always were only three options where the boy would wake up. First, his apartment with shabby walls and minimum furniture. Second, his classroom where he would usually fall asleep as he sat in the last row. Third, and which was the most comfortable to Yusaku, inside Café Nagi, by Kusanagi-san's side.

And the current problem was that the boy found himself somewhere else than those variants.

The bedroom seemed bigger than one in his own apartment, sun beams were dancing on the walls with flowery wallpapers as they were passing through light curtains embroidered with golden threads. Slowly and carefully Yusaku made an attempt to get out of the large double bed, but that was easier to imagine than actually commit as the boy's legs were horribly numb and kept on tangling in silky bed linen.

"Where in the world am I..?" cold sweat appeared on his forehead as his heart rate began rapidly increase and his stomach began tightening in a tight knot.

No matter how he tried he couldn't recognize the interior.

" _Was I kidnapped?!_ " this thought instantly forced Yusaku's stiff muscles twitch in painful spasm, making him clumsily squirm in this goddamn linen, resulting in his falling back and hitting his head hard against the wooden headboard.

"Hey, don't get so worked up," suddenly, there was a familiar voice right next to him. "I'm already 100% sure you're gonna have a nice bump there."

"Ai!" Yusaku shifted his shocked gaze onto the pillow next to him as he hissed and rubbed the back of his head.

"One and only!" the AI cooed carelessly.

"What the hell... Where are we?!" the boy frantically looked around while his rabid pulse was drumming in his aching temples.

"Don't ask me," Ai shrugged. "I dunno. But I'm sure when he comes back he'll explain everything properly."

"He..?"

"Aaaah! Shoo!" Ignis began chaotically waving his arms, fruitlessly trying to fight back against joyously barking dachshund that leaped to him and was now trying to lick him thoroughly. "You stupid animal, I'm sick of you and I mean it!!"

"Oh, you're awake already?" another familiar voice came from outside of the room that instant, and as the door opened Yusaku's eyes went wide.

"Kusanagi-san!" the boy jerked up in his direction but sudden dizziness made him collapse back on the mattress.

"Hey-hey," the man quickly approached the bed and sat down on its edge. "You had been unconscious for two days, take it easy."

"Two days..?" Yusaku got up on his elbows, but... as soon as his eyes met with those gray in front of him strange chill ran down his spine.

"What's wrong?" worried, the man leaned forward and reached his arm towards the visibly tense boy's sweaty forehead. "Honey?"

"Stay back!" he pushed him away with all his might. "Don't touch me!"

"W-why?" Shoichi recoiled, he was in great shock as he watched Yusaku's breathing become labored and his eyes turning bulged as if he was jumpscared by a monster. "H-hey, hun..."

"Get away! Don't come any closer!!" the boy yelled with raspy voice, hyperventilating really bad.

He made a desperate attempt to get out of the bed, but his legs got tangled in the bed linen once again and as his head abruptly started swimming due to another dizziness stroke Yusaku lost his balance and fell down on the floor with a loud thump.

"Y-yusaku!" Shoichi was immediately at the boy's side. "Are you alright?!"

The man tried to hold his shoulders, but Yusaku squirmed out of his grip and fell back onto the fluffy carpet.

"He's freaked out," Ai shrugged as the dachshund beside him whined.

"You're... You're... not Kusanagi-san..!" Yusaku blurted out right in the man's face. "Who the hell are you, imposter?!"

"Imposter?!" Shoichi's(?) eyes went wide. "Why would you suddenly say something like that, honey?"

"Three reasons," Yusaku coughed as his voice turned husky, his hyperventilation was terrible. "First, Kusanagi-san doesn't have long hair. Second, what in the world is this place? And third..." the cough turned so bad that Shoichi(?) reached out to the boy again but his hands were harshly pushed aside. "T-third... What's with the "honey"?!"

"Yusaku..." Shoichi(?) lowered his gaze and clenched his slightly shaky fists. "You know... I have the same questions for you actually."

"Hrgh... h-huh..?!" Yusaku was barely able to hold his own weight as his arms were trembling akin to fragile strings that were about to burst.

"But save it for later!" Shoichi rose onto his feet and gently helped the boy to do the same. "You look pale and your breathing is... Come on, let's go to the kitchen and get you a glass of water!"

His vision was blurry, his legs were tangling and nausea was building up in his stomach but he had no choice as he held onto the man, slowly walking through the apartment. And once again he became convinced that this wasn't his dwelling, his place was never this big and fancy.

"Just a sec," Shoichi(?) let Yusaku sit on a small leather coach inside the spacious kitchen and hurried to get some water from a kettle. "Here you go."

The boy's fingers were nervously twitching and he was quite hesitant, and yet he accepted the glass as the dryness of his throat was killing him.

"Easy there!" Shoichi(?) patted the boy's back as he, still hyperventilating, choked. "There you go," he took the glass when Yusaku emptied it in three sips. "Now take a deep breath. Calm down. No one is here to hurt you. It's okay. Everything is okay."

Yusaku coughed a bit more as he covered his mouth with his palm whereas Shoichi(?) kept repeating "Okay, it's okay." As the nasty scratching feeling in his throat that was provoking the cough ceased the boy looked up at the person next to him.

The man bore an uncanny resemblance to Kusanagi Shoichi, and yet Yusaku was 100% sure it wasn't him. No, it wasn't about clothes, one could always easily change then, though the boy could have sworn he never saw Kusanagi-san wearing these white fluffy bunny slippers, pants with stripes of darker and lighter shades of brown, this light gray woolen sweater with a couple of cuddling kittens depicted on it and a silver chainletter with letters FS around his neck. A tiny silver ring in right ear shone as Shoichi(?) tucked a stray strand of his long, its tips went a bit beyond shoulder blades, loose and messy hair. It seemed that his beard grew a little bushier too. But what caught Yusaku's attention the most was a phantom impression that the man appeared to be... kinda older than he usually seemed?

"Oh?" Shoichi(?) looked over his shoulder back in the bedroom's direction as a noise of combined barking and Ai's yelling was heard. "I'll go get those two. You sit here and try to relax, alright?"

He got up and ruffled the boy's hair before going out of the kitchen.

Left alone, Yusaku sighed heavily and rubbed his temples.

What the hell was going on? Was he seeing some sort of bizarre dream? No matter how carefully he attempted to bring together scattered puzzles of a picture called "understanding of what's happening here", everything was futile. There were just too much of blank gaps, too many vital puzzles were missing from his memory, preventing him to make out the clear picture. But his intuition kept screeching that everything about this situation was abnormal, so the boy realized that he needed to act fast, if he wanted to get himself out of potentially dangerous turn of events.

As a sign from above a sun beam reflected from a certain object on the dining table.

"I'm telling you," at that very moment smiling Shoichi(?) entered the kitchen, holding Yusaku's Duel Disk, the dachshund pup was following them, lively wiggling its tail. "Weenie just wants to be friends with you and... huh?!"

Bug-eyed, the man froze right there, at the threshold. Weenie, the dachshund, tucked her tail between her legs and, whining, hid behind her master.

"Oh come on, Yusaku-chan," Ai made a sceptical look, watching him clutching a big kitchen knife in his shaky hands and pointing it towards them. "You look like some inadequate psycho."

"Shut up," the boy hissed and gave Shoichi(?) a glare so intense that it could have easily burned the man alive were such an option actually available. "You. I demand explanations. No!" he shouted as the man tried to take a step in his direction. "Stay where you are! I'm not deaf and that distance is just fine for me to hear you out!"

"H-hon... Yusaku!" Shoichi(?) slowly rose his hands in a gesture of capitulation, cold sweat appeared on his pale face. "W-what are you gonna do with that thing? Put that down! P-please, put the knife down! It's dangerous, you may hurt yourself! And you're not looking very well either! Take a sit and calm down!"

He was telling the truth: the way Yusaku was barely sustaining his balance as he lightly swayed left and right with his knees buckled and legs shaking wasn't exactly screaming about feeling well.

"Yusaku," Shoichi(?) took a deep breath and carefully reached out his arm towards the boy. "Please, give me that knife. I promise, you're safe here. I'm not going to hurt you, just... please, listen to me. I don't really understand what's going on myself, but we can talk it over, okay? Are you agree? Yusaku?"

The boy hesitated and looked right into the man's eyes, thoroughly searching for any signs of a catch... and found none. It was insane, but those gray gentle eyes, so familiar to him, somehow managed to soothe his turmoil, convince him that this stranger with such a familiar face was nowhere near a threat. These eyes, this warm look... it was so dear to Yusaku and at this very moment he was receiving the same wordless message of "It's alright, I'm always here for you" that the alarm in his head switched off and he put the knife back on the table.

"Good boy," Shoichi(?) smiled with a feeling of great relief warming up his chest. "Now let's go to the living room and discuss everything, okay?"

With a serious look not leaving his face Yusaku nodded and walked up to the man standing at the door.

"Only after you," he frowned when Shoichi(?) took a step to the side to let him through.

"Okay, okay," the man sighed and went ahead.

Once in the living room, Yusaku stood in the middle of it, studying the interior. It was quite fancy, and yet there was this soothing domestic cosyness created by colorful flowery wallpapers, beige fluffy carpet, wicker wooden furniture and many plants blooming and filling the sunlit room with lots of sweet scents.

"Oh my," Shoichi(?) sighed as he sat on the coach and held the shivering dachshund in his lap, gently stroking her fur. "Poor baby Weenie. The threatening sight of you holding that big knife scared her."

"Heh, little coward," Ai on the coffee table mockingly commented in response to her quiet whining.

Yusaku was ignoring their trivial conversation, but then his inner senses tingled again when a sun beam reflected from something on top of chest of drawers caught his attention.

" _What the..?_ " he took a closer look at the row of photographs in different funny (hearts, stars, hot dogs) and ordinary frames. The boy picked up one of them and his eyes went wide.

There were three people in the picture. They were posing in front of St. Patrick's cathedral in New York. The first person was obviously Shoichi(?), he was wearing red Hawaiian flowery shirt, jeans shorts and brown sandals as he was smiling a big radiant smile, showing peace sign and wraping his other arm around the second's man waist. That second person was none other than Yusaku himself, though the boy quickly noticed that the he in the photo looked somewhat... older? Yes, that was the right word to describe it as Yusaku kept looking at himself wearing blue vertical striped shirt, beige trousers and brown shoes. The he in the picture was smiling happily as well, his eyes were literally shining with joy as he wrapped his arms around Shoichi(?)‘s waist, holding him in embrace.

"Wait. How is this possible..?" 

More than anything else in this picture the boy didn't remember taking there was one thing that made him completely lose the ability to understand what was going on.

It was the third person's presence which took the boy aback. That person was a man seemingly around Yusaku's age. He was wearing dark gray hoodie with Cafe Nagi's dachshund mascot, black baggy pants and gray boots. There was a silver ring shining in his left ear, his purple messy hair was braided in low ponytail. The man was standing, though keeping a bit of a distance, next to Shoichi and Yusaku, giving the two a very eloquent gloomy look. His expression was a picturesque stony poker face, but the dark gray eyes were coherently conveying the thought of "What am I even doing here?".

Yes, that was exactly what Yusaku figured Kusanagi Jin was thinking about in that picture.

"K-kusanagi-san," the boy even believed the man to be him at that moment. "How is this... Wasn't your little brother... in mental facility?"

Shoichi's face darkened, he stroked Weenie's fur more actively, trying to soothe himself as he talked.

"Yes... Yes, Jin had been there for a very, very long time. But right now his condition allows him to interact with society, though he doesn't like to do it much. He lives in a small, one-room apartment next to ours and works as a freelance programmer, quite a professional one. But, unfortunately, this is all there is to his life, he has no friends aside from in the internet, he is not interested in getting a girlfriend or boyfriend either. He spends most of his time behind those dark curtains in his room, he only likes going out if it's taking Weenie for a walk. It's... I'm worried about him."

Shoichi hid his gloomy gaze under his bangs and Yusaku suddenly felt an invisible iron coil crushing his ribcage.

 _That deeply sorrowful look on this man's face_...

Yusaku knew it all too well and that made him realize that this stranger in front of him was truly Kusanagi Shoichi, no matter how illogical and bizarre it was.

"Kusanagi-san..." the boy sat in an armchair across the coffee table.

"Please, uh, call me Shoichi-san," the man slightly shook his head and for some reason avoided meeting up with Yusaku's gaze. "You see, I'm... I'm no longer Kusanagi."

"Hm? Oh," the boy noticed a thin platinum ring around his finger. "You're married. ...Hold on. How... When..?"

Yusaku was apparently, or at least he thought so, going crazy. Because really, last time he checked his friend was nowhere near in a relationship, lest thinking about marrying someone.

"Yusaku... you still don't understand what's going on, do you?" Ai asked in uncharacteristic for him careful tone.

"No," the boy rubbed his temples, getting visibly tense again. "And before my head explodes, I wish somebody explained this to me."

Shoichi and Ai exchanged weird look and then directed them over at Yusaku.

"W-well, I know it might sound surrealistic..." the man started though his stuttering was making it difficult for him. "But, you're actually..."

"Welcome to the future, my dude~!" Ai exclaimed gleefully and spread his tiny arms in respective gesture.

One second.

Two seconds.

Five seconds.

The AI started feeling extremely uncomfortable under Yusaku's lingering glare.

"Yeah, right. Nice joke, Ai," the boy got up from his armchair and walked in the windows' direction.

"Alas, this is not a joke," Shoichi let Weenie leap off his lap as he stood up as well and walked towards Yusaku.

"This sounds like some nonsensical magic mumbo-jumbo," he crossed his arms and frowned. "It's impossible."

"It sure is," Shoichi shrugged, standing next to the boy and looking out of the window. "But have you got any logical explanations to where are you now and how did you get here?"

"That's..."

No, of course Yusaku didn't have any ideas. It all seemed like a crazy dream and that was causing him a great deal of headache.

"I'm just as shocked as you're," Shoichi was looking far into the clear blue sky. "Me and... the Yusaku from this era were having fun in LINK VRAINS."

"LINK VRAINS?" the boy looked at him.

"Yeah," the man nodded. "Though, I must say, the system has advanced _vastly_ over the course of the last ten years."

"Ten years..? Are you saying this is the year 2037?"

"That's right. And today is June 17th."

"...It was June 15th as far as I remember."

"I told you you had been unconscious for two days, so it's only natural that the date changed."

"But how did this happen?" Yusaku's voice grew tense. "How in the world did I end up here? What happened?"

"I don't get it myself," Shoichi shook his head. "We were in LINK VRAINS, nothing was out of ordinary, everything went wrong when we were about to log out. Yusaku, the Yusaku I know, went a bit ahead of me, but then, all of a sudden, there was a loud sound resembling a creak and a bright flash of light, it engulfed him fully. I didn't see exactly what happened, it blinded me, but for a brief moment I think I was able to see the source of it, it was Yusaku's Duel Disk."

"And... what was next?"

"I logged out without any problems. As I did, there was you lying unconscious on the floor. Do you have any idea how freaked out I was when I realized that not only something happened to Yusaku that knocked him out but it also had turned him back into youngster?"

"Yeah," Ai cackled. "If only you knew how much of a sedative he drank while I kept claiming that we came from the past."

"You," the boy looked over at him, furrowing his brows. "Do you have something to do with it? How did you figure out our whereabouts?"

"Hey," the Ignis crossed his arms. "I do understand I'm cool but time traveling is not my specialty. As for how I figured everything out, well, duh. When we appeared here, I quickly scanned the local network. Guess what? It's _way_ more elaborate than the one I'm used to! This level of advance perfectly corresponds to one decade time span. Besides, it's difficult to argue when every calendar here stubbornly shows 2037."

"Ugh," Yusaku facepalmed. "This is insane. I'm so lost."

"Same here..." Shoichi lowered his gaze. "I wonder what happened to my Yusaku... Your Shoichi must be hella worried too."

"Mine?" the boy blinked, giving the man confused look.

"Erm," a light shade of pink dusted his cheeks. "I meant to say the Shoichi from your era."

"Aww, don't be so shy," Ai suddenly razzed. "In your case the Yusaku from this era is _definitely yours_ , mm?"

"A-Ai!" Shoichi flustered even worse.

"Anyway," but the sly AI changed the topic that instant. "Where is the future version of me? Would be cool to see the guy!"

"That's impossible," the man pulled himself together, his face was picturesque straight again. "If I understand at least something about time travelling, then it's absolutely prohibited for one to interact directly with their past/future counterpart. Besides, it's not possible for Ai to do so anyway."

"Eeeh..." Ai was visibly disappointed. "Why?"

"Because paradoxes might happen," Yusaku gave him the answer before Shoichi could say his own word. "In worst case scanario one could easily erase oneself from existence once and for all."

"Whaa?? But we're interacting with the local Shoichi and it's okay??"

"We are still yet to know if it really is," the man objected. "In any case, until we somehow figure out what exactly happened I'll have you both locked in here, you may not go out of this apartment."

"Not even in LINK VRAINS?"

"No, considering that the phenomena most likely occured while you were online."

"Or most likely while the Yusaku from this era was transitioning back into the real word during log out..."

"What?" Shoichi looked at the broody boy. "You were not logging out?"

"I..."

Yusaku was unable to explain properly something he was confused about himself. His own mind was covered by thick, inpenetrable fog, and the boy could only see scarce shards of his most recent memories, but even so it was nearly impossible to put them all together to see a clear picture.

"Hey... Yusaku? What's wrong?" Shoichi suddenly approached him and look into his face. "You're so pale again."

A hand gently touched the boy's shoulder.

And the touch turned into a real bolt of electricity by Yusaku's brain false directive.

He violently shuddered as memories came flooding and images flashed right in front of his wide open eyes.

LINK VRAINS.

He as Playmaker.

The Knights of Hanoi.

Ambush.

Hide.

Inside a crate, it seems to be really safe.

Hardened breath.

Pounding

Heart.

Footsteps.

There.

Getting discovered, dragged out violently.

Pushed around.

Beaten.

Being pinned.

Down.

Sleazy hands.

Grope.

Destroying clothing, tearing into shreds.

Getting positioned.

On all fours.

Gag.

" ** _Wow, your insides are so neat!_** "

Heart goes...

A ghastly suave voice as he was about to get penetrated...

 _Crazy_.

"H-hey, Yusaku!!" Shoichi panicked when the boy's face turned yellowish and he bent forward, covering his mouth with both hands. "Hey! What's..."

Instead of finishing what he was meant to say the man gasped and recoiled as he ended up with lots of vomit all over his sweater.

"O-oh my..." he looked at pallid Yusaku coughing and spitting his spew as he was hyperventilating. "Hey, are you okay..?"

"A-aah..." dizzy and with his legs shaking, the boy wiped his lips with the back of his hand, grimacing because of the gross bitter taste in his mouth. "I'm... fine. But your clothes..."

"Don't bother," Shoichi helped him get to the coach and poured some water from a carafe standing on the coffee table. "Here, drink."

"Uh-huh..." Yusaku nodded in graditude and accepted the glass, emptying it in one sip.

"I'll go get some towels," Shoichi headed out of the room but before crossing the threshold looked back at Ai. "Look after him."

"Will do, chief," he saluted with all seriousness. "Do your stuff."

"A-Ai..." the Ignis flinched as Yusaku burned him with a deadly glare when they were left alone. "You... hadn't told him about... _that_... about what happened to me in LINK VRAINS..?"

"Erm... About the Knights of Hanoi almost having their nasty way with you? No, worry not."

The boy sighed with a bit of relief. It was already way too bizarre as it was and he didn't want to deal with something as humiliating and shameful as that.

 _That was the nightmare he should forget as quickly as possible_.

"I think we should postpone all further conversations until at least tomorrow morning," Shoichi returned to the living room a couple of minutes later, wearing a new sweater and, how it appeared, pajama pants. "You've had enough shock for today. You really must rest now."

"What about _your_ Yusaku?" Ai asked in kinda cunning tone when the man helped the boy up and threw his arm over his shoulder, holding him.

"I know," uneasiness flickered in Shoichi's eyes. "But we had already figured out that he might have ended up in the past respectively. If so then he's most probably by that Shoichi's side. That calms me down a little, at least."

The man walked Yusaku to the bathroom to help him wash his face and then back to the bedroom.

"Here," Shoichi gave him folded pajamas. "These are yours, I mean, Yusaku's from this era. The size might be bigger but I think it'll do."

"Thank you," Yusaku nodded and, having changed, went to bed.

Shoichi took his uniform and took it bathroom for laundry and then together with Ai returned to his room.

"Oh geez," the AI huffed when Weenie hopped on the bed and curled next to the pillow he was on.

"I hope you don't mind me crashing next to you?" Shoichi moved closer to Yusaku.

"No. After all, this is your bed, I suppose."

"It is," Shoichi slightly chuckled.

"Um..." suddenly, the boy looked away from him, faintly blushing. "Uh, Shoichi... san?"

"What is it?"

"You and the I from this era..." he bit his lower lip. "Are you two married?"

"Huh?!" Shoichi's face became akin to beetroot.

"Hehe," Ai cackled. "How did Yusaku-chan figure out?"

"Well, first," the boy yawned, "Kusanagi-san never calls me "honey". Second, Ai sort of insinuated it by saying that Yusaku from this era was _definitely Shoichi-san's_. Third, I noticed those matching rings in that picture with you in New York."

"Wow," Shoichi gave him a clumsy smile. "You're one sharp eye."

"I don't get it though, how can it be? Aren't same-sex marriages illegal in Japan?"

"They were until several years ago. There was a real revolution in our society regarding this topic but, without going into details, I'll just say that Yusaku and I have been married for three years."

"Hmm..."

Shoichi tensed up. He couldn't decipher the boy's inexpressive face, his emerald eyes were completely unreadable. And this vagueness was making the man's heart pound like crazy.

"So..." he flinched in the back of his mind when Yusaku finally parted his lips. "As far as I know, time is not linear, thus this future cannot be _my_ future because the Yusaku from this era's past self is not _me_. One's future is determined by their choises and decisions, something like picking various options in visual novels to get different roots and then by selecting different variants again to get this or that ending. Conclusion, this future is definitely not mine because I am yet to make a decision of getting into _this_ kind of relationship with Kusanagi Shoichi from my era."

"But Yusaku-chan," Ai decided to ask a sneaky question. "I thought you had a crush on your Sho-chan?"

This question made Shoichi's cheeks turn slightly pink, but the boy with his unchanging stony face covered himself with blanket and mumbled from beneath.

"What I'm thinking about right now is getting some sleep. I'm sure my brain will work better after having some rest."

"Y-yeah," Shoichi forced a clumsy smile. "I'm sure we'll figure some things out after having some nice sleep. Sweet dreams, Yu..."

The boy was no longer listening as he was already sleeping soundly.

Shoichi sighed and couldn't help chuckling. Even if it wasn't the Yusaku he was married with this sleepy face was so familiar and so cute that the man's heart was fluttering on its own as he gently stroke the boy's hair.

"This is so that the nightmares wouldn't get you," he whispered softly.

This whole situation with time traveling or, how precicely Yusaku called it, magic mumbo-jumbo was way too complicated, and yet...

The boy quietly gasped and shuddered in his sleep as beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. Shoichi sighed heavily. That's right, by this time he had always forgot what it was like, for Yusaku to suffer from nightmares. Lots of stuff happened during ten years, at this very moment the man had no energy to recall it all as his own eyelids were getting unbearably heavy, but there was still this major difference between his husband and this boy in his arms. Yusaku, his Yusaku, had defeated his nightmares once and for all long time ago. But this Yusaku, this kid, still had a long way to go, not to say that this way was covered with shrubberies and thorns, that was something that older Shoichi knew for sure.

Even if it was a parallel universe Yusaku was doomed to go through many ordeals.

Anxious, Fujiki Shoichi held the young boy in his arms, giving him all his warmth and whispering soothing words akin to those a mother would whisper to her small frightened kid. It seemed to help as Yusaku's tension disappeared and he relaxed in the man's embrace.

He still barely had any idea how to deal with all this bizarrity of time and space transition but there was one thing his heart was telling him to do.

 _Protect Yusaku, no matter which_. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments will be greatly appreciated!


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